Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Days before the
recent Israel/Hamas conflict erupted, the Presbyterian Church USA withdrew $21
million worth in investments from Israel because, as spokesman Heath Rada put
it, the Israeli government’s actions “harm the Palestinian people.”

Soon after,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press”
and was asked if he was “troubled” by the Presbyterian Church’s move. Netanyahu
responded:

“It should trouble all people of conscience and
morality because it’s so disgraceful. You know, you look at what’s happening in
the Middle East and I think most Americans understand this, they see this
enormous area riveted by religious hatred, by savagery of unimaginable
proportions. Then you come to Israel and you see the one democracy that
upholds basic human rights, that guards the rights of all minorities, that
protects Christians—Christians are persecuted throughout the Middle
East. So most Americans understand that Israel is a beacon of civilization
and moderation. You know I would suggest to these Presbyterian
organizations to fly to the Middle East, come and see Israel for the embattled
democracy that it is, and then take a bus tour, go to Libya, go to Syria, go to
Iraq, and see the difference. And I would give them two pieces of advice,
one is, make sure it’s an armor plated bus, and second, don’t say that you’re
Christians.”

It’s
difficult—if not impossible—to argue with Netanyahu’s logic. Indeed, several
points made in his one-minute response are deserving of some reflection.

Christians crucified in Syria by radical Islamists

First, the
obvious: why is it that self-professed Christians completely ignore the
horrific Islamic persecution of fellow Christians in the Middle East, while
grandstanding against the Jewish state for trying to defend itself against the
same ideology that persecutes Christians?

And he is
absolutely right to say that the persecution of Christians in the Mideast has
reached a point of “savagery of unimaginable proportions.” Perhaps the only
thing more shocking than the atrocities Mideast Christians are exposed to—the
slaughters, crucifixions, beheadings, torture and rape—is the absolute silence
emanating from so-called mainline Protestant churches in the U.S.

Note also the
nations Netanyahu highlighted for their brutal persecution of Christian
minorities: Libya, Syria, and Iraq. Indigenous Christians were markedly better
off in all three nations before the U.S. got involved, specifically be
empowering, deliberately or not, Islamist forces. Now, according to recent studies, Christians in all three
nations are experiencing the worst form of persecution around the globe:

* Iraq: After the U.S. toppled Saddam
Hussein, Christian minorities were savagely attacked and slaughtered, and
dozens of their churches were bombed (see here for graphic images). In the last decade, Christians have been terrorized into near-extinction, with well over half of
them fleeing Iraq.

If the
Presbyterian Church has problems with governments that persecute people—in this
case, the Israeli government’s purported treatment of Palestinians, hence the
Presbyterian Church’s divestment from Israel—perhaps it should begin by
criticizing its own government’s proxy war on fellow Christians in the Middle East.

Christians are
also being targeted in the P.A. territories—by the very same elements the
Presbyterian Church is trying to defend.

More recently,
nuns of the Greek-Orthodox monastery in Bethany sent a letter to Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas urging him to respond to the escalation of attacks on the Christian house, including
the throwing of stones, broken glass, theft and looting of the monastery
property. “Someone wants to send us away,” wrote Sister Ibraxia in the letter,
“but we will not flee.”

Sadly, the
hypocrisy exhibited by the Presbyterian Church is not limited to that
denomination. Some time back, fifteen leaders from various U.S. Christian
denominations—mostly Protestant, including the Lutheran, Methodist, and UCC
Churches—asked Congress to reevaluate U.S. military aid to Israel, again, in
the context of supporting “persecuted” Palestinians.

Yet nary a word
from these same church leaders concerning the rampant persecution of millions of
Christians at the hands of Muslims in the Middle East—a persecution that makes
the Palestinians’ situation pale in comparison.

Other “leftist”
Protestants do find time to criticize Muslim persecution of Christians—but only
to blame Israel for it. Thus, Diarmaid MacCulloch, a Fellow of St. Cross
College, wrote an article in the Daily Beast ostensibly addressing the plight
of Mideast Christians—but only to argue that the source of Christian persecution “ in
the Middle East is seven decades of unresolved conflict between Israel and
Palestine.”

In reality, far
from prompting the persecution of Christians, the Arab-Israeli conflict is
itself a byproduct of the same hostility Islamic supremacism engenders for all
non-Muslims. The reason hostility for Israel is much more viral is because the
Jewish state holds a unique position of authority over Muslims unlike
vulnerable Christian minorities who can be abused at will (as fully explained here).

They know they
can count on basic human rights protection from Israel than from many of their
fellow Christians in the West. After all, beyond the sophistry, distortions,
and downright lies emanating from some of these Christian denominations, the
fact remains: both Jews and Christians are under attack from the same foe and
for the same reason: they are non-Muslim “infidels” who need to be subjugated.